Candidate forum on educational issues | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    The Beaufort County Schools and Beaufort County Community College sponsored a candidate forum Tuesday September 30, 2014 at Washington High School. All of the candidates for Beaufort County Commission, Senate District 1 and House District 6 were present. Michael Speciale from House 3 joined e group late after organizers finally decided to allow him to participate.

    We have the video of the full two hours but will be posting them in phases. The first video below is the responses of the candidates to the first question which ask them what their top educational priorities will be if elected.

    The other videos of the remaining questions will be posted here later, so check back to see them all.



    The second question was : "What do you see as the role of traditional public schools in light of legislation on private and charter school?" To assess these responses one needs to know that only charter schools receive state funding, although some poor families are eligible for vouchers to allow them to send their child to a private school. What is important to understand is that when a child leaves the public schools and enrolls in a charter school only part of the money they generate goes with them. The remainder stays behind with the public schools system, so there is a net increase per pupil in revenue for the public schools. None of the candidates seem to understand this.

    It should also be remembered that charter schools do, contrary to what some speakers said, have to meet the same standards as public schools in that they have to give the same standardized tests to their students as are given to public school students. And just for the record, charter schools students as a whole doe better on those tests than do the public school students on average.

    Another false statement made was that the public schools have suffered budget cuts. That is simply not true, except for the loss of Federal stimulus funds, which were never intended to be continuing appropriations. The state and county have both increased spending on the public schools in recent years, including this year. It is deceptive to say that the supposedly one time Federal stimulus was a "cut."

    Several candidates infer in their comments that the public schools have to "feed the children and transport them." That is true, but Beaufort County Schools gets additional allotments or revenue to do that. Listen for the inherent bias in some of the candidates' comments on this issue.

    Finally, another major funding issue was not even mentioned. The county appropriates current expense money to the Beaufort County Schools in a lump sum. The school board can then spend that money for whatever it deems most important. For example, if the school board decides to cut teacher assistants it is because they decided to spend that money on something else. But they got the money, they just decided to spend it otherwise. The same is true for "maintenance" which was mentioned by several candidates. One would think these commissioner candidates would have at least acknowledged they know this. If they want to insure "adequate funds" for certain things/programs they should (and can under state law) appropriate by line item. The current Board of Commissioners chooses not to do that. Thus, it is not a matter of how much money they appropriate, but HOW they appropriate it and not one of them even mentions this.

    Now, with that background listen to the responses and you decide who knows what they're talking about and who is being honest or not.



    The third video is a classic. Here we have what is obviously a loaded question from the organizers of this forum. "We need more money..." is the message.

    The Democrats, and one nominal Republican (Buzzeo) on the panel promise more, more and more. Yet they have no explanation of either where the money will come from or what the results will be. The real Republicans don't fall for the bait.

    What you need to know when you watch this video is that the state provides most of the funding for both the public schools and the community colleges, based on student enrollment. Yet none of the candidates address the fact that the student population in the public schools has been declining while the revenue has been increasing. Those you hear talk about facilities don't seem to know that a recent study found that there are over 2000 excess seats in the K-12 system with some schools overcrowded while others underutilized. All this is due to poor planning on the part of the school board and prior County Commission. That's the equivalent of two elementary schools plus a middle school. Yet most of those calling for more spending do not mention how they will prevent the waste we have seen in the past. None is willing to even mention the "R" word—reassignment of students to make more efficient use of existing facilities.